The NEBA Fall Trade Show Offers Many Authors and a New Award

The 2005 New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) Fall Trade Show will be held on Friday, September 16, through Sunday, September 18, in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Expanded education programming will include two sessions sponsored by the American Booksellers Association: "Increasing Margin," and "It's in the Payroll!," both presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz. The trade show floor will open on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and on Sunday it will be open from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

ABA will also have a booth on the trade show floor, where the focus will be on education and information. Booksellers are encouraged to stop by the booth to meet with ABA staff, including Domnitz, Kristen Gilligan, associate director of programming and constituent groups liaison ([email protected]), David Walker , director of special projects, and Patti Neske, BookSense.com project manager.

Visitors to the booth can drop off their business card for a chance to win airfare and hotel accommodations for ABA's Winter Institute or an inkjet printer. (ABA is encouraging booksellers to contact ABA staff members prior to the show if they have questions, suggestions, or comments. Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at NEBA may also be directed to Gilligan.)

An important NEBA offering at this year's show is "Planning Roundtables," said Rusty Drugan, NEBA executive director. "It's a major meeting that's a culmination of six or seven months of planning," he said. "Planning Roundtables" offers an opportunity for NEBA members to offer input before the Planning Committee enters its intensive phase of formulating specific missions and goals regarding how the association can better help them in the current economy.

Differing from past shows, the awards usually given at the Sunday Author Breakfast will now be given at an awards luncheon on Friday from noon to 2:30 p.m. NEBA President Allan Schmid, owner of Books, Etc. in Portland and Falmouth, Maine, will present the President's Award for lifetime achievement in arts and letters to Tracy Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Random House Trade Paperbacks) and the Gilman Award for outstanding service as a sales representative to New England bookstores to Bill Palizzolo of Billbooks and Associates. In addition, Linda Ramsdell, chair of the Awards Committee and owner of the Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, Vermont, will introduce the 2005 New England Book Awards recipients: Jane Brox for Nonfiction; Chelsea Green for Publishing; William Martin for Fiction; and Marc Simont for Children's.

An exciting addition to the awards luncheon is the Independent Spirit Book Award, which will be given by the Book Publishers Representatives of New England to a New England bookstore that has demonstrated "creative excellence in the broad spectrum of retail bookselling."

Prior to the luncheon is the popular "It's in the Payroll!" presented by ABA's Domnitz. The focus of this session is payroll control, the single largest component on the expense side of the ledger and, arguably, the most difficult issue for booksellers to handle successfully. From an examination of what is included in the payroll line (total compensation) to providing practical, usable tools for budgeting, scheduling, and controlling payroll, this seminar will offer invaluable tools and information, regardless of the size of a bookseller's store.

Following the luncheon will be "Increasing Margin: An Advanced Course in Growing Your Bottom Line," presented by Domnitz, with Carole Horne, vice president for merchandising for Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Intended for booksellers already familiar with principles of inventory management, "Increasing Margin" compares and contrasts a profitable and unprofitable bookstore, covering a wide range of material, including: controlling product mix, direct versus wholesale ordering, electronic ordering, understanding the value of early payment discounts, better managing seasonal title orders, and more.

Friday night is capped by the Children's Books Author/Illustrator Dinner. Guest speakers include M.T. Anderson (Whales on Stilts, Harcourt Children's Books) and Pam Muoz Ryan (Nacho and Lolita, Scholastic).

Saturday begins with the "Saturday Breakfast With Authors," with David Halberstam (The Education of a Coach, Hyperion) and Gregory Maguire (Son of a Witch, Regan Books), among others.

Following the breakfast, educational opportunities continue with "Buying and Merchandising Bargain Books," which offers advice on sourcing and buying remainders and guidelines and tips on pricing and merchandising them.

Following "Buying and Merchandising Bargain Books" will be the panel, "E-mail Newsletters." At this session, ABA's Gilligan and Neske will provide information about the services of ABA's e-mail-newsletter provider, Constant Contact, which may be used by both ABA and non-ABA stores, and Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Connecticut, and Jenny Lawton of Just Books, Too, in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, will also share their knowledge and experiences with newsletters.

On Saturday afternoon there will be the seminar, "Stone Soup: Ingredients of Great Children's Bookselling," where veteran and expert children's booksellers will cover the gamut of what booksellers need to know to sell children's books effectively: training staff, marketing and merchandising, and handselling.

After the NEBA Annual Meeting and the Annual Reception, the night concludes with the "Dinner With Authors," where 13 authors will move from table to table of booksellers as each course is served. Featured writers include: J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar, Hyperion); David Rakoff (Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, Doubleday); and Martha Southgate (Third Girl From the Left: A Novel, Houghton Mifflin).

Sunday's "Breakfast With Authors" features Maureen Dowd (Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide, G. P. Putnam), Chris Elliot (The Shroud of the Thwacker, Miramax Books), and Scott Turow (Ordinary Heroes, Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Sunday's seminars include "The Buyer/Sales Rep Relationship," which looks at how technology, industry consolidation, and cost cutting by major publishers are among the many factors that have dramatically changed the buyer/sales rep relationship. In the afternoon is "What Do You Do About...?" which is an informal and casual opportunity to sit down over a boxed lunch with other booksellers and talk about common issues and concerns.

For registration information, including ticket information, a full schedule with times and locations, visit www.newenglandbooks.org or e-mail [email protected]. -Karen Schechner